Hello friends. Coming up with an idea for this week’s blog was easy. We celebrated Blue Gurus turning 7 years old on April 26th. It’s amazing to me, and I’m so thankful!

None of this would’ve happened without the people that have trusted us to help them. Thank you to our friends and clients who allow us to make a living doing work that matters. Anybody that wants a hug or fist bump, just let us know. We’ve got an endless supply for you.

I remember being nervous about taking the leap even though there was no doubt I was committed to starting my own company.

Thank you to my wife Trista for believing in me. I told her that I wanted to start my own business on a rainy day in April 2009. And then I proposed to her. I hit her with a lot to process all at once and thankfully she said “yes” to everything!

She has encouraged and supported me through the ups and downs ever since. I heard a great story recently from a really good guy talking about getting his wife to marry him. He said she was out of his league, but convincing her to say yes was his best sales job ever. And that’s exactly how I feel about Trista. She’s amazing and I am lucky to have her in my life.

I remember thinking when I started Blue Gurus that I wanted to work with someone because otherwise it would be really lonely.

I’m glad it took less than a year to figure that out. Thank you to Mic for believing in me. Mic and I reconnected at a Kansas City Chamber event right around the time I was starting Blue Gurus. It was too early to bring him on financially, but we wanted to work together and stayed in touch with each other.

Several months later, we were finally able to start working together. He’s become one of my best friends. He’s done so much for me, our clients and for Blue Gurus. This journey has been even more rewarding because Mic has walked most of it with me…always trying to keep me from getting distracted by shiny things.

I remember the list of clients from our first year.

I use Quickbooks Online to manage our accounting. (It’s GREAT for service-based businesses!) I remember wrapping up the books in December 2009 and looking at the list of clients who had written us a check. It wasn’t a long list, but it was an important one. I remember hoping that someday I would have to click the “next” button on the list of clients because there were so many that I had to page through them. I was so happy at the end of the next year because we actually got there… Woohoo!

And now when I look through the list, every company name brings back memories. I remember how we met. Who referred us. The work we did together. And the fun that we had getting things done. Thank you!

Challenge #1: The Great Recession

We all went through the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009. So yeah, I started Blue Gurus in the worst economic decline since World War II. Smart, right?

People weren’t spending much money on training or marketing. They were slashing head counts and doing whatever they could to get by. In spite of that, there were enough opportunities to make a living. One of the nice things about LinkedIn and blogging is that you get so much bang for your buck. I’d had success using these tools to double the revenue of my previous company in 18 months and was able to tell that story confidently and passionately.

I had that quote on a piece of paper on my desk that first year. It was a good reminder to stay the course.

Challenge #2: Social Media Infancy in Business

It’s true when I tell people that we were doing LinkedIn and blogging way before they were cool. Today, most people know it’s an important part of doing business. The first few years we were selling the vision required much patience and constant education. I remember sitting in a boardroom full of business owners saying things like, “I’m not going to spend a dollar on social media if it doesn’t make me two dollars.”

Wow. We’ve come a long way since then.

Thank you. You mean so much to us.

I don’t know how you found this blog post. It could have been a link you clicked from a status update on LinkedIn. You might be subscribed to our blog updates through email. It might have been a link on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter.

But no matter how you found it, you’re reading it.

My gut tells me you wouldn’t have clicked or read if you didn’t care about us personally. We believe that the relationships we have with family, friends, clients and peers are incredibly important…some of the most important things in life.

So thank you for being such an important part of our world! We appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.

Thank you for celebrating 7 years with us. We’ll continue to pour everything we have into our relationships for many years to come.